Stop PowerApps timeout when browser window is idle

[SGiles]

I have a requirement to show a dashboard style app using PowerApps connecting to data held in SharePoint Online. 

As this is a dashboard the view is that the App will be shown on a screen without interaction for long periods of the day. 

Unfortunately I get a "Your session has expired" message and stops showing the App after a short amount of time. 

Can this be turned off or at least set a time in configuration e.g. 10 hours?

Any suggestions and advice would be grateful.

[mx]

This has been reports a couple of times. Supposedly ... being fixed.

But wait, there's more: This happend EVEN when you are actively designin in the browser ... with virtually NO idle time.

Please report this as a bug (again) ... Microsoft PA Team really needs to 'get this'.

[Delid4ve]

This grates me..
I go for a cigarette come back and it's timed out..
I can be working, no warning, your session has expired(always when you've just solved a complex formula!)
Sometimes I get extend your session, other times just your session is going to expire.
A: there is no real need to timeout a session
B: it definitely shouldn't time out when your using it as an app

Can I ask, how are you displaying the app? Instead of going through powerapps, go through dynamics and open the app, I've not checked timeouts this way, only through web.powerapps and create.powerapps

[v-micsh-msft]

Hi @SGiles, @Delid4ve and @mx,

There is an idea submitted on this already:

Renew the timer on Web Apps

If you open the App in PowerApps Web Studio, then the session should be active within 8 hours (base on the comments from staff @cherie).

Sorry to say that currently there is no settings that is available to control that.

Please feel free to add your comments under that idea.

Regards,

Michael

[Delid4ve]

8 hours? This doesn't include editing I assume? As when I'm editing a session tends to last 2 hours at the absolute most(I've not actually timed it)

[cherie]

Hi,

The 8 hours timeout only happens when you are running the powerapp (url is web.powerapps.com). And currently it isn't configurable.

Thanks

Cherie

[mx]

re: "If you open the App in PowerApps Web Studio, then the session should be active within 8 hours"

This is not the case. The timeout happens both in the browser and desktop studio, although the time varies. And I'm specifically referring to when you are actively editing/designing.

And as of at least a week ago, the desktop studio is not usable because it's sooooo slooooow when even just clicking around - as reported by many people.

There is absolutely *no* valid reason a timeout should occur in either the browser or desktop studio. Totally insane and unnecessary. I've yet to see Amazon timeout no matter how long you've been in a 'session', and there are 1000's of more people connected to Amazon at a given moment that PowerApps 🙂

re: "Please feel free to add your comments under that idea."

Idea ?  Well, it's not really an 'idea'. It's a serious problem and needs to be fixed.

[v-micsh-msft]

Hi @mx,

Thanks for your comments.

Yes, I understand the situation. And I agree with that there should be no timeout happens when App is in Editing mode.

The intentions that I have is to share the information about 8 hours timeout for PowerApps studio in web at the current time.

And I believe the timeout behavior would be improved in further release version of PowerApps (as the timeout inteval increased from 2 hours to 8 hours).

For adding comments under the idea, my bad for being inaccurate, I should say that as a User Voice instead of an idea.

Regards,

Michael

[mx]

You were not inaccurate. I'm just totally annoyed by these unnecessary timeouts.

I guess though I'm not sure about "8 hours timeout for PowerApps studio in web "

I only work in the browser (Chrome) at the moment because of the 'design' performance issue with the desktop studio - although I should check to see if that has been resolved.

But ... I easily get a timeout within a hour.  

[Glitch_IT · Accepted solution]

We also bumped into this annoying problem where the users would constantly complain that the session had timed out.

A team of users consults the app on one touch screen. The app is displayed in Chrome in full-screen mode.

We resolved this issue by installing an extension from the Chrome Web Store called “Auto Refresh”. It refreshes the page every 360 minutes, or whatever you set it to.

We’ve had no issues for the past week.